Ho Chi Minh - Vietnam War - HISTORY.com Ho Chi Minh A+E Networks Introduction Ho Chi Minh first emerged as an outspoken voice for Vietnamese independence while living as a young man in France during World War I. Inspired by the Bolshevik Revolution, he joined the Communist Party and traveled to the Soviet Union. He helped found the Indochinese Communist Party in 1930 and the League for the Independence of Vietnam, or Viet Minh, in 1941. At World War II’s end, Viet Minh forces seized the northern Vietnamese city of Hanoi and declared a Democratic State of Vietnam (or North Vietnam) with Ho as president. Known as “Uncle Ho,” he would serve in that position for the next 25 years, becoming a symbol of Vietnam’s struggle for unification during a long and costly conflict with the strongly anti-Communist regime in South Vietnam and its powerful ally, the United States. Google Ho Chi Minh: Early Life Ho Chi Minh was born Nguyen Sinh Cung on May 19, 1890, in a village in central Vietnam (then part of French Indochina).

In 1911, he found work as a cook on a French steamer and spent the next several years at sea, traveling to Africa, the United States and Britain, among other locations. By 1919, he was living in France, where he organized a group of Vietnamese immigrants and petitioned delegates at the Versailles Peace Conference to demand that the French colonial government in Indochina grant the same rights to its subjects as it did to its rulers. Did You Know? In February 1967, Ho Chi Minh responded to a personal message from U.S. President Lyndon Johnson by announcing that the North Vietnamese would never negotiate under the threat of bombing. Inspired by the success of Vladimir Lenin’s Bolshevik Revolution, he joined the new French Communist Party in 1920 and traveled to Moscow three years later. He soon began recruiting members of a Vietnamese nationalist movement that would form the basis of the Indochinese Communist Party (founded in Hong Kong in 1930) and traveled the world, including Brussels, Paris and Siam (now Thailand), where he worked as a representative of the Communist International organization.

Ho Chi Minh: Founding of the Viet Minh and North Vietnam When Germany defeated France in 1940, during World War II , Ho saw it as an opportunity for the Vietnamese nationalist cause. Around this time, he began to use the name Ho Chi Minh (roughly translated as “Bringer of Light”). With his lieutenants Vo Nguyen Giap and Pham Van Dong, Ho returned to Vietnam in January 1941 and organized the Viet Minh, or League for the Independence of Vietnam. Forced to seek China’s aid for the new organization, Ho was imprisoned for 18 months by Chiang Kai-Shek’s anti-Communist government. With the Allied victory in 1945, Japanese forces withdrew from Vietnam, leaving the French-educated Emperor Bao Dai in control of an independent Vietnam. Led by Vo Nguyen Giap, Viet Minh forces seized the northern city of Hanoi and declared a Democratic State of Vietnam (known commonly as North Vietnam) with Ho as president. Bao Dai abdicated in favor of the revolution, but French military troops gained control of southern Vietnam, including Saigon, and Chiang Kai-Shek’s Chinese forces moved into the north according to the terms of an Allied agreement.

Ho began negotiations with the French in efforts to achieve a Chinese withdrawal as well as eventual French recognition of Vietnam’s independence and reunification of North and South Vietnam. But in October 1946, a French cruiser opened fire on the town of Haiphong after a clash between French and Vietnamese soldiers. Despite Ho’s best efforts to maintain peace, his more militant followers called for war, which broke out that December. Ho Chi Minh: Toward War with the United States During the First Indochina War, the French returned Bao Dai to power and set up the state of Vietnam (South Vietnam) in July 1949, with Saigon as its capital. Armed conflict between the two states continued until a decisive battle at Dien Bien Phu ended in French defeat by Viet Minh forces. The subsequent treaty negotiations at Geneva (at which Ho was represented by his associate Pham Van Dong) partitioned Indochina and called for elections for reunification in 1956. Backed by the United States, the strongly anti-Communist South Vietnamese government of Ngo Dinh Diem refused to support the Geneva accords, and put off elections indefinitely.

In 1959, armed conflict broke out again, as Communist guerrillas known as the Viet Cong began launching attacks on targets (including U.S. military installations) in South Vietnam. The Viet Cong appealed to North Vietnam for help, and that July the central committee of Ho’s Lao Dong (Worker’s Party) voted to link the establishment of socialism in the North to the cause of unification with the South. Ho Chi Minh and the Vietnam War At this same meeting, Ho ceded his position as party secretary-general to Le Duan. He would remain nominally as North Vietnam’s head of state during the Vietnam War , but would take a more behind-the-scenes role. To his people, “Uncle Ho” also remained an important symbol of Vietnam’s unification. The U.S. continued to increase its support of South Vietnam, sending economic aid and–beginning in December 1961–military troops. American air strikes against North Vietnam began in 1965, and in July 1966, Ho sent a message to the country’s people that “nothing is as dear to the heart of the Vietnamese as independence and liberation.” This became the motto of the North Vietnamese cause.

On the heels of North Vietnam’s Tet Offensive in early 1968, U.S. President Lyndon Johnson made the decision to halt escalation of the war and called for peace talks to begin. The conflict was still ongoing by September 2, 1969, when Ho Chi Minh died in Hanoi at the age of 79. The last U.S. troops left Vietnam in March 1973, and in April 1975 Communist forces seized control of Saigon, renaming it Ho Chi Minh City. Tags Vietnam.com: Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) More Photos Ho Chi Minh City (Sai Gon) Ho Chi Minh City is commonly known as Saigon or by the abbreviation HCMC. Although it is not the capital of Vietnam, it is the largest city in Vietnam and it was the capital of the former Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam). As the throbbing commercial and economical center of Vietnam, Saigon is always busy, and the heat, the noise of the traffic and crowds can be overwhelming.

Be nice to Saigon: it rewards patient tourists with a fascinating glimpse of Vietnam, of its past and present, and it will always be developing ahead of all cities in Vietnam. Ho Chi Minh City is located in the southeastern region of Vietnam, it has a muggy, tropical climate with an average of 75% humidity. Rainy season runs from May to late November, with December to April being the driest, coolest months. The city is somewhat chaotic, boasting an electric, near palpable energy. Ho Chi Minh City is one of Southeast Asia’s liveliest cities. For the casual visitor, Saigon – as its still called by all but the city officials who live here – can seem a chaotic mess of traffic-clogged roads and urban bustle. But zillions of expats and Vietnamese immigrants couldn’t imagine living anywhere else. If asked for a symbol of Saigon, it would surely be the motorbike. More than three million of them move along the streets. Cruising along boulevards and narrow streets, the crowds of private easy-riders and xe om (motorbike taxi) belong to the image of the city.

Hectic markets, stylistic cafés, massage and acupuncture clinics, centuries-old pagodas, modern skyscrapers and ramshackle shops selling all kinds of goods all try to attract customers amid the surreal urban collage. Saigon is one of the most forward-looking cities driving the current economic boom. Investments are materialized in new lavish hotels and restaurants, trendy nightclubs and high-end boutiques as well as modern expensive development areas and neighborhoods. Saigon has now some 10 million inhabitants in the greater HCMC area, 7 million in the city itself; it has almost 7% of the total population of Vietnam. The population is growing rapidly, with a rate of about 200 thousand per year. About 90% of the population is ethnic Vietnamese. Another 8% of HCMC residents are Chinese; they make up the largest Chinatown in Vietnam, Cho Lon. Most residents of Ho Chi Minh City are Buddhist or practice ancestor worship, but about 15% are Roman Catholic or Protestant. Other religious groups such as Islam and Hinduism are found in smaller numbers.

Ho Chi Minh City began as a small fishing village called Prey Nokor, inhabited by Khmer people originally from what is now Cambodia. Over time, Vietnamese refugees fleeing civil wars elsewhere in Vietnam filled the region. By the end of the 17th century, under the Nguyen dynasty, Vietnam had completely absorbed Prey Nokor, which was by then known as Saigon. The French arrived in 1859 and conquered Saigon and later the rest of Vietnam. With its wide boulevards and French-inspired architecture, Saigon became known as "the Pearl of the Far East" (Hòn ngọc Viễn Đông) and "Paris in the Orient." Many visitors claim that this charm is still present in the city. Independence movements against French colonial rule, led by liberation movements, were organized by the Viet Minh and others. In 1954 Ho Chi Minh's communist Viet Minh forces defeated the French in the Battle of Dien Bien Phu, causing them to withdraw from Vietnam. Subsequently, Vietnam was partitioned into North and South Vietnam, with the government of the South, the Republic of Vietnam, holding its seat in Saigon.

On April 30, 1975, North Vietnamese troops captured Saigon, ending the Vietnam War. Following North Vietnam's victory, Vietnam was unified and the capital of the reunified Vietnam became Hanoi . Saigon was renamed Ho Chi Minh City. Saigon: getting around and transportation • Air Most domestic flights from Tan Son Nhat Airport are operated by Viet¬nam Airlines. Pacific Airlines also offers the HCMC-Hanoi and HCMC- Da Nang routes, while Sasco flies between HCMC and the Con Dao Islands. Tan Son Nhat Airport was one of the three busiest airports in the world in the late 1960s. The runways are still lined with lichen-covered, mortar-proof aircraft-retaining walls, hangars and other military structures. • Bus Intercity buses depart from and arrive at a variety of stations around HCMC. Cho Lon bus station (Le Quang Sung Street, north of Binh Tay Market) is the most convenient place to get buses to My Tho and other Mekong Delta towns. Buses to the Mekong Delta also depart from Mien Tay bus station (Ben Xe Mien Tay, Tel.

825 5955). This huge station is about 10km west of HCMC in An Lac, a part of the Binh Chanh district. Buses to travel north leave from Mien Dong bus station (Ben Xe Mien Dong; Tel. 829 4056), in Binh Thanh district about 5km from central HCMC on Hwy 13 (Quoc Lo 13, the continuation of Xo Viet Nghe Tinh Street). Destinations are Buon Ma Thuot (12 hours, 110 thousand Dong), Da Nang (26 hours, 200 thousand Dong), Hai Phong (53 hours (!), 340 thousand Dong), Nha Trang (11 hours, 75 thousand Dong), Hanoi (49 hours, 320 thousand Dong), Hué (24 hours , 220 thousand Dong), among others. • Car and motorbike Inquire at almost any tourist café, travel agent or your hotel to arrange car rental. Car rental will include a driver as it is against the law for foreigners to drive in Vietnam without a Vietnamese license.

Motorbikes are available for about US$10 per day. • Train Trains from Saigon train station (Ga Sai Gon; Tel. 823 0105; 1 Nguyen Thong Street, District 3; ticket office 7.15-11 a.m. & 1-3 p.m.) serve cities along the coast north of HCMC. Train tickets can be purchased from Saigon Railways Tourist Services (Tel. 836 7640; fax 837 5224; 275C Pham Ngu Lao Street; 7.30-11.30 a.m. & 1-4.30 p.m.) or from most travel agents. • Boat Hydrofoils (US$10, 1 hour 15 min) depart for Vung Tau almost hourly from Bach Dang jetty on Ton Duc Thang Street (contact Petro Express, Tel. 821 0650 at the jetty). Travelers who have time can ask (at the dock, Ham Nghi Street, at the river end, Tel.

829 7892) for departures to destinations in the Me Kong Delta like An Giang, Vinh Long, Ca Mau, My Tho, among others. Tickets can be purchased on the boat. Hotels and accommodation Low priced Family Inn Saigon Ho Chi Minh City and around Guide | Vietnam Travel | Rough Guides Explore Find out more Books Features Asia » Vietnam » Ho Chi Minh City and around Ho Chi Minh City – or Thanh Pho Ho Chi Minh, to give it its full Vietnamese title – is Vietnam’s centre of commerce and the country’s biggest city, though not its administrative capital – an honour that rests with Hanoi. As a result of the sweeping economic changes wrought by doi moi in 1986, this effervescent city, perched on the banks of the Saigon River and still known as Saigon to its eight million or so inhabitants, has changed its image from that of a war-torn city to one of a thriving metropolis, challenging Singapore, Bangkok and the other traditional Southeast Asian powerhouses.

All the accoutrements of economic success – fine restaurants, flash hotels, glitzy bars and clubs, and shops selling imported luxury goods – are here, adding a glossy veneer to the city’s hotchpotch landscape of French stones of empire, venerable pagodas and austere, Soviet-style housing blocks. Sadly, however, Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) is still full of people for whom economic progress has not yet translated into food, housing and jobs. Street children roam the tourist enclaves hawking books, postcards, lottery tickets and cigarette lighters; limbless mendicants haul themselves about on crude trolleys; and watchful pickpockets prowl crowded streets on the lookout for unguarded wallets. Though the number of beggars is gradually declining, tourists must quickly come to accept them as a hassle that goes with the territory. In addition, the arrival, en masse, of wealthy Westerners has lured many women into prostitution, for which the go-go bars of Dong Khoi became famous during the American War.

If Hanoi is a city of romance and mellow charms, then Ho Chi Minh City is its antithesis, a fury of sights and sounds, and the crucible in which Vietnam’s rallying fortunes are boiling. Few corners of the city afford respite from the cacophony of construction work casting up new office blocks and hotels with logic-defying speed. An increasing number of cars and minibuses jostle with an organic mass of state-of-the-art Honda SUVs, choking the tree-lined streets and boulevards. Amid this melee, the local people go about their daily life: smartly dressed schoolkids wander past streetside baguette-sellers; women shoppers ride motorbikes clad in gangster-style bandanas to protect their skin from the sun and dust; while teenagers in designer jeans chirrup into mobile phones. Much of the fun of being in Ho Chi Minh City derives from the simple pleasure of absorbing its flurry of activity – something best done from the seat of a cyclo or a roadside café.

To blink is to miss some new and singular sight, be it a motorbike stacked high with piglets bound for the market, or a boy on a bicycle rapping out a staccato tattoo on pieces of bamboo to advertise noodles for sale. HCMC is divided into 24 districts, though tourists rarely travel beyond districts One, Three and Five. In addition, an increasing number of expats reside in Phu My Hung, aka South Saigon, in district Seven – a squeaky-clean suburb that wouldn’t look out of place in Singapore, making quite a contrast to the rest of this seething metropolis. The city proper hugs the west bank of the Saigon River, and its central area, District One, nestles in the hinge formed by the confluence of the river with the Ben Nghe Channel; traditionally the French Quarter of the city, this area is still widely known as Saigon. Dong Khoi is its delicate backbone, and around the T-shape it forms with Le Duan Boulevard are located several of the city’s museums and colonial remnants. However, many of the city’s other sights are scattered further afield, so visitors have to effect a dot-to-dot of the sights that appeal most.

These invariably include one or more of the museums that pander to the West’s fixation with the American War, the pick of the bunch being the War Remnants Museum and Ho Chi Minh City Museum . For some visitors, the war is their primary frame of reference and such historical hot spots as the Reunification Palace rank highly on their itineraries. Yet the city pre-dates American involvement by several centuries, and not all of its sights revolve around planes, tanks and rusting ordnance. Ostentatious reminders of French rule abound, among them such memorable buildings as Notre Dame Cathedral and the grandiose Hotel de Ville – but even these look spanking-new when compared to gloriously musty edifices like Quan Am Pagoda and the Jade Emperor Pagoda , just a couple of the many captivating places of worship across the city. And if the chaos becomes too much, you can escape to the relative calm of the Botanical Gardens – also home to the city’s History Museum . It’s one of Ho Chi Minh City’s many charms that once you’ve exhausted, or been exhausted by, all it has to offer, paddy fields, beaches and wide-open countryside are not far away.

The most popular trip out of the city is to the Cu Chi tunnels , where villagers dug themselves out of the range of American shelling. The tunnels are often twinned with a tour around the fanciful Great Temple of the indigenous Cao Dai religion at Tay Ninh. A brief taster of the Mekong Delta at My Tho or a dip in the South China Sea at Ho Coc are also eminently possible in a long day’s excursion. The best time to visit tropical Ho Chi Minh City is in the dry season, which runs from December through to April. During the wet season, May to November, there are frequent tropical storms, though these won’t disrupt your travels too much. Average temperatures, year-round, hover between 26°C and 29°C; March, April and May are the hottest months. Brief history Knowledge of Ho Chi Minh City’s early history is sketchy at best. Between the first and sixth centuries, the territory on which it lies fell under the nominal rule of the Funan Empire to the west.

Funan was subsequently absorbed by the Kambuja peoples of the pre-Angkor Chen La Empire, but it is unlikely that these imperial machinations had much bearing upon the sleepy fishing backwater that would later develop into Ho Chi Minh City. Khmer fishermen eked out a living here, building their huts on the stable ground just north of the delta wetlands, which made it ideal for human settlement. Originally named Prei Nokor, it flourished as an entrepô for Cambodian boats pushing down the Mekong River, and by the seventeenth century it boasted a garrison and a mercantile community that embraced Malay, Indian and Chinese traders. Such a dynamic settlement was bound to draw attention from the north. By the eighteenth century, the Viets had subdued the kingdom of Champa, and this area was swallowed up by Hué’s Nguyen Dynasty. With new ownership came a new name, Saigon, thought to be derived from the Vietnamese word for the kapok tree. Upon the outbreak of the Tay Son Rebellion, in 1772, Nguyen Anh bricked the whole settlement into a walled fortress, the eight-sided Gia Dinh Citadel.

The army that put down the Tay Son brothers included an assisting French military force, who grappled for several decades to undermine Vietnamese control in the region and develop a trading post in Asia. Finally, in 1861, they seized Saigon, using Emperor Tu Duc’s persecution of French missionaries as a pretext. The 1862 Treaty of Saigon declared the city the capital of French Cochinchina. Colonial-era Saigon Ho Chi Minh City owes much of its form and character to the French colonists: channels were filled in, marshlands drained and steam tramways set to work along its regimental grid of tamarind-shaded boulevards, which by the 1930s sported names like Boulevard de la Somme and Rue Rousseau. Flashy examples of European architecture were erected, cafés and boutiques sprang up to cater for its new, Vermouth-sipping, baguette-munching citizens and the city was imbued with such an all-round Gallic air that Somerset Maugham, visiting in the 1930s, found it reminiscent of “a little provincial town in the south of France, a blithe and smiling little place”.

The French colons (colonials) bankrolled improvements to Saigon with the vast profits they were able to cream from exporting Vietnam’s rubber and rice out of the city’s rapidly expanding seaport. On a human level, however, French rule was invariably harsh; dissent crystallized in the form of strikes through the 1920s and 1930s, but the nationalist movement hadn’t gathered any real head of steam before World War II’s tendrils spread to Southeast Asia. At its close, the Potsdam Conference of 1945 set the British Army the task of disarming Japanese troops in southern Vietnam. Arriving in Saigon two months later, they promptly returned power to the French and so began thirty years of war. Saigon saw little action during the anti-French war, which was fought mostly in the countryside and resulted in the French capitulation at Dien Bien Phu in 1954.

Saigon in the American War Designated the capital of the Republic of South Vietnam by President Diem in 1955, Saigon was soon both the nerve centre of the American war effort, and its R&R capital, with a slough of sleazy bars along Dong Khoi (known then as Tu Do) catering to GIs on leave from duty. Despite the Communist bomb attacks and demonstrations by students and monks that periodically disturbed the peace, these were good times for Saigon, whose entrepreneurs prospered on the back of the tens of thousands of Americans posted here. The gravy train ran out of steam with the withdrawal of American troops in 1973, and two years later the Ho Chi Minh Campaign rolled into the city and through the gates of the presidential palace and the Communists were in control. Within a year, Saigon had been renamed Ho Chi Minh City. Post-reunification Saigon The war years extracted a heavy toll: American carpet-bombing of the Vietnamese countryside forced millions of refugees into the relative safety of the city, and ill-advised, post-reunification policies triggered a social and economic stagnation whose ramifications still echo like ripples on a lake.

Persecution of southerners with links to the Americans saw many thousands sent to re-education camps. Millions more fled the country by boat. Only in 1986, when the economic liberalization, doi moi, was established, and a market economy reintroduced, did the fortunes of the city show signs of taking an upturn. Today, more than two decades later, the city’s resurgence is well advanced and its inhabitants are eyeing the future with unprecedented optimism. Ho Chi Minh City and around Vietnam Population in 2016 | Population Fun Have Fun With Population & Demographics Data While Learning! Vietnam Vietnam flag The Socialist Republic of Vietnam is located in Southeast Asia and is also the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula . Bordering the Gulf of Thailand , Gulf of Tonkin , and South China Sea , as well as China , Laos , and Cambodia , Vietnam’s surface is slightly larger than New Mexico – about 128,000 square miles, divided into 58 provinces and five municipalities.

With a density of 703 people per square mile, the population of Vietnam in 2015 is about 92.5 million, ranking it 14th in the list of the most populous nations in the world, according to a CIA World Factbook estimate in July 2014 and is at the top of the list of the world’s emerging tourist attractions, as selected by international visitors in 2012. Since the reunification of North and South Vietnam in 1976, Hanoi is the capital city, but Ho Chi Minh City is the largest. Ho Chi Minh City was named after Ho Chi Minh , a Vietnamese communist revolutionary leader who was prime minister (1945-1955) and president (1945-1969) of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam). The Vietnamese had to fight for independence more than once: in 938, when they became independent from China, and in 1945, when they became independent from France.

Basic History of Vietnam In 1954, after the French were expelled from Indochina, Vietnam remained politically divided between two states, North and South Vietnam, which led to a long and brutal war, which lasted from 1955 through 1975. The South Vietnam anti-communist forces gained direct support from the United States of America, who started sending heavy troops in the area in the 1960s, while the pro-communist North Vietnam was backed by the Soviet Union and China. The war ended in 1975, two years after US military involvement ceased, when North communist Vietnam captured the city of Saigon. Estimates claim that 800,000 to 3.1 million Vietnamese soldiers and civilians were killed during the war. Today, ruled by president Truong Tan Sang and vice president Nguyen Thi Doan , Vietnam is a communist state according to its current Constitution which replaced the 1975 Constitution in April 1992.

Geography of Vietnam Located in Southeastern Asia, the Socialist Republic of Vietnam has a total surface of 128,565 square miles of which 2,883 miles country’s land and boundaries and 2,140 miles coastline, making it the 66th largest country in the world. The terrain is a low, flat delta in south and north while hilly and mountainous in far north and northwest. The land consists mostly of tropical forests (around 42%), mountains (40%) and level land (no more than 20%). The highest mountain in Vietnam is Phan Xi Păng – 10,312 feet, situated in Lao Cai province, in the northern part of the country. The climate of Vietnam is tropical in south and monsoonal in north with hot, rainy season, from May to September, and warm, dry season, from October to March. Population of Vietnam The population of Vietnam is standing at 92,477,857 million with a density of 704 people per square miles in accordance to an estimate for July, 2013 provided by CIA World Factbook.

The latest census of the Vietnamese people took place in 2009 and recorded a total population of about 85.8 million. From the 1979 census, which showed the total population of reunified Vietnam – 52.7 million, the population had grown significantly – with 62.8% (about 33 million people). Population growth rate is estimated to 1.03% (CIA World Factbook). Birth rate reached 16.56 birth/1,000 population, while death rate is 5.94 deaths/1,000 population. The median age in Vietnam is 28.7 years, 27.6 years for males and 29.7 years for females, and the sex ratio at birth is rated at 1.12 male(s)/female. Life expectancy at birth is 72.65 years (70.2 years for males and 75.4 years for females). Net migration rate is 0.33 migrant(s)/1,000 population as of for 2013 (CIA World Factbook).

A projection published by the General Statistics Office of Vietnam indicated that the population will reach 96.5 million people in 2020 and 111.8 million people in 2049. Largest city in Vietnam Ho Chi Minh City – the largest city in Vietnam Ho Chi Minh City is the largest city in Vietnam. According to a 2009 estimate, it has 7,521,130 million people and a density of approximately 9,294 inhabitants per square mile. Ho Chi Minh is commonly known under the name Saigon, when it was the capital of the French colony of Cochin-china and then the capital of the independent republic of South Vietnam. After the reunification of North and South Vietnam, in 1976, Saigon united with Gia Dinh Province and was renamed Ho Chi Minh City, after Ho Chi Minh. The next largest city in Vietnam is capital Hanoi with a population of about 6.4 million people and a density of 5,000 citizens per square mile. Haiphong and Chan Thao are the other two large cities in Vietnam with more than 1 million inhabitants.

Ethnicity in Vietnam The main ethnic group in Vietnam is Viet or Kinh and it represents nearly 73.6 million, or 85.8% of the total population. Vietnam is a multi-ethnic country with 54 distinct groups recognized by the Vietnamese government. Each ethnic group has its own language, lifestyle, and cultural heritage. These are 54 ethnic groups recognized by the government. After Viet or Kinh, Tay is the largest minority in Vietnam (1.9%), followed by Thai, with 1.7% , Muong – closest to Kinh Vietnamese, other half of Viet–Muong language family (1.5%), Khmer Krom – 1.4%, Hoa (Chinese) – 1.1%, Nung – 1.1% and H’mong (formerly known as Meo) – also known as Miao in China (1%). Religions of Vietnam Cao Dai temple The dominant religion is Vietnam is Buddhism. About 85% of Vietnamese identify themselves with Buddha’s teaching. Even so, not all of them practice it every day.

As stated by a report published by the General Statistics Office of Vietnam’s in 2009, 7.9% (6,8 million) of the Vietnamese population is Buddhist, 7.5% (7.5 million) is Christian – 6.6% (5.7 million) Catholic and 0.9% (0.7 million) is Protestant, 1.7% (1.4 million) practices Hoa Hoa (or Hoahaoism ) and 0.9% (0.8 million) Cao Dai. In total, 15,651,467 Vietnamese (18.2%) are formally registered in a religion. According to the same 2009 census, 81% of Vietnamese do not believe in God. Language in Vietnam Vietnamese language The official language of Vietnam is Vietnamese , a tonal monosyllabic Mon-Khmer language . Vietnamese is spoken by the majority of the population and also by the approximately 3 million Vietnamese residing elsewhere. However, English is increasingly favored as a second language.

Other languages spoken in Vietnam are the ones used by Vietnam’s minority groups, who use a variety of languages, including Tay, Muong, Cham, Khmer, Chinese, Nung, H’Mong, and French. The Montagnard people of the Central Highlands also speak a number of distinct languages. Vietnamese writing used Chinese characters until the 13th century, when the Vietnamese created their own set of characters. Economy of Vietnam Vietnam – United States trades Vietnam is now a densely-populated developing country that has been transitioning from a rigid, centrally-planned economy since 1986. With an economy supported by agriculture, services and industry, it has a gross domestic product (GDP) of 325.9 billion dollars, while the GDP per capita is rated at 3,600 dollars and the growth in 2012 was of 5%. According to CIA World Factbook, Vietnam has one of the most 50 developing economies in the world (rank 42).

In 2005, Goldman Sachs forecasted that by 2025, Vietnam will become the 17th largest economy in the world with nominal GDP of 436 billion dollar and nominal GDP per capita of USD$4,535. Until then, 11.3% of the Vietnamese live below the World Bank’s international poverty line. Facts and figures will be updated in late 2015 or early 2016 as they become available with new census data. Incoming search terms: ho chi minh city population vietnam population 2016 population of ho chi minh city ho chi minh population Ho Chi Minh City 2017: Best of Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam Tourism - TripAdvisor Things to Do More Vietnam's bustling largest city sets the cultural and economic pace for the country. The former Saigon boasts charming French colonial architecture and wide boulevards, usually thronged and choked with traffic. Taxis are an option for seeing the sprawling city. The War Remnants Museum shows the Vietnam War through Vietnamese eyes. Don't miss the impressive Jade Emperor Pagoda. Go to the frenetic Ben Thanh Market for food, flowers or frogs.

Tour through the Mekong Delta, past rice paddies and houseboats. Read more Read less Ho Chi Minh City Vietnam Things to do Ho Chi Minh City’s architecture and lifestyle is the reconciliation between American and Chinese influence, with many dots of modernity yet without losing Vietnamese traits and as much historical as it is modern. Reunification Palace is definitely the place to visit, for its significance and archival of Vietnam War. If this building still does not impress you enough, rest assured that museums are abound and the admission fees are generally low. Among the most recommended ones are: Ho Chi Minh Museum , Revolutionary Museum and Vietnam History Museum. If you are tired of talking about the past and want to learn more about the present, District 1 may be the best way to experience a dynamic and booming economy. Streets and boulevards are lined with tall evergreen trees and you can easily walk around with a map . Here and there you will see men walking and dressed up like those in the Wall Street, amid women wearing conical hat and selling street drinks . A few notable sights you will spot on the way are the city post-office, Notre Dame church and Ben Thanh market .

It might be a relief for some to know that Ho Chi Minh City is also considered the best place in Vietnam for entertainment . The three main amusement parks: Dam Sen, Suoi Tien and Dai Nam are the three complexes with zoos, sceneries, water and non water games - well-fitted for a family trip . There is no Disneyland in Vietnam but these complexes do their job: they replace the fairy tales of Andersen stories with the folk tales in Vietnamese . You play and have fun, while learning about a different culture and tradition . If Ho Chi Minh has things to win the rivalry against Hanoi, it is the colourful night-life . Bars are open late and vary in style. Adding to that, Ho Chi Minh has many tea-houses which hosts live music performance of both Vietnamese and international artists. For a change, you can also go local for one night or two, hop into one of the street food stalls, order some drink and roasted peanuts and chat until midnight (more ideas to spend your night in Ho Chi Minh City ).

Ho Chi Minh city by night --- More -- written and submitted by our visitor, Douglas Thompson With her back turned on a broad plain that stretches west across Cambodia, and with the rich Mekong Delta at her feet, Ho Chi Minh City sits regally on a giant bend in the Sài Gon River. Bulging with a population of nearly seven million, Ho Chi Minh City, is Vietnam’s largest and most exciting city. While Hanoi is the center of government, Ho Chi Minh City is the nation’s economic heart, and money is on the minds of everyone here (see Our Blog on Hanoi or Ho Chi Minh City ). Taxi drivers can recite the latest joint venture regulations, and even shirt makers stay in touch with their foreign customers by e-mail. Time is precious, and people are in a hurry, although conversation often takes a small town tone as bakers and bankers compare their ‘‘inside’’ information at sidewalk cafés. Long before traffic choked the center of the city, Saigon had already been christened the ‘‘Paris of Asia’’ for its wide boulevards lined with stately trees and magnificent French villas.

For a moment you may be fooled by the smells of coffee and baking bread, and by old Renaults sounding their horns at roundabouts. The best way of all to see Ho Chi Minh City is on foot . Most major tourist venues are in District 1, which is fairly compact and easy to maneuver. Taxis are all metered and very inexpensive. You can get across town for about $2 or $3. Xe om (motorbike taxis, pronounced ‘‘see ohm’’) are even cheaper. Cyclos (pedicabs, pronounced ‘‘see-klos’’) carry only one passenger at a time. They are slow and somewhat uncomfortable, yet more charming and intimate way to experience the pace of modern Ho Chi Minh City. Unfortunately, they are being slowly squeezed out central Saigon by traffic. Visas Most nationalities need visa to visit Ho Chi Minh city, read the visa section for more information. An increasingly popular alternative is to arrange a visa on arrival , which is convenient to those who live far away from an embassy or do not have time to send their passport by post. Dining Saigon is not a place where you will easily go hungry, regardless of your budget.

A glut of foreign business people with expense accounts has created plenty of elegant, albeit overpriced restaurants. You will find everything from enchiladas to dim sum here, although I can not imagine why anyone but terminally bored expatriates would even bother. Many of these places are pretentious and offer only passable food. Most of the Vietnamese restaurants which cater to the business community are quite Westernized. If you insist on a crisp, white table cloth, the best of these is Blue Ginger, housed in a former journalists’ club at 37 Nam Ky Khai Nghia. Viet Nam House upstairs at 4 Nguyen Thiep Street is under the same ownership. Both are magnificently decorated. You can expect fabulous service and live music. Lemon Grass, at 93-95 Dong Khai Street, is a bit more modest and relaxed, but still fairly good. On most nights, a string quartet entertains diners. But for those who want to enjoy real Vietnamese food and contemporary Saigon living, forget about all the tourist restaurants with their white linens and bloated prices, and instead dine where the Vietnamese do. . Thanks to cheap food and local whisky everyone makes merry in Saigon every night.

Don't leave Ho Chi Minh City without trying one of the banh xeo (pancake) places on Dinh Cong Trang Street, one of the most unusual eating experiences in the city. About one block down this little alley you will find hundreds of people eating outdoors around an open-air kitchen. While you may receive a menu which includes a variety of banh xeo and other specialties, it's just as easy to look at what other people are having and point. Except for some seafood dishes, the food is very cheap. Just keep ordering one dish at a time until you have had enough. The small and sumptuously decorated Phu Xuan offers the traditional culinary specialties of Hue , Vietnamese cooking’s equivalent of Imperial court cuisine. Unlike most Saigon, flavors are rich and subtle, and dishes are beautifully presented. Although a bit more spendy than street food, Phu Xuan is a wonderful and relaxing place for a romantic supper or a small party. In District 3 at 128 Dinh Tien Hoang. A final culinary curiosity is the Binh Soup Shop at 7 Ly Chinh Thang, in District 3.

Before North Vietnamese tanks rolled down the streets in 1975, Viet Kong infiltrators used this little dive as their secret headquarters. While serving up helpings of noodle soup to thousands of unsuspecting Vietnamese and Americans, cooks and waiters here plotted sabotage, and ultimately, the fall of Saigon. Saigon's Top Sights You may be surprised to know how many tourists put the former American Embassy at the top of their list of things to see in Ho Chi Minh City . If you are one of them, resist temptation and head first for the History Museum near the entrance to the zoo. This unassuming, musty place, with its grimy glass cases, houses a formidable collection of artifacts from Vietnam’s two thousand years of recorded history. Even a very brief visit will help put many of the other things you will see as you tour Saigon in some kind of historical perspective. The museum also has a water puppet theater and one of the best stocked and most reasonably priced gift shops in the city. From the museum, head down Le Duan Boulevard towards Reunification Palace , the former Presidential Palace occupied for nine years by Nguyen Van Thieu. Tourists stop at the front gate to snap photos by the thousands, but few venture inside.

You might find yourself practically alone and wander from floor to floor as though you owned the place. Maps still hanging in the underground military operations rooms remind visitors how close the ‘‘enemy’’ was. On the top floor you will find yourself in a party room with a stage and a huge lanai. Below, lavish reception halls and office, a gambling room, and a private movie theater are all self-indulgent and tasteless reminders of why our side lost. Only a few blocks away the new U.S. Consulate sits on the site of the former U.S. Embassy. Before it was torn down you could you stand at the gate it is easy to imagine the helicopter removing a fortunate few from the roof, while thousands fought and screamed outside the fence. The building became a scar and was thankfully torn down. Ben Thanh Market should be your next stop. Here, you will find practically every staple commodity imaginable except automobiles and real estate. If consumerism offers intimate glimpses of how people live, wandering among the tiny, packed stalls here will give you some unique insights into modern Vietnamese life. The food court here has delicious and very tasty local specialties. Produce, flowers, and meats are sold on the sidewalks surrounding the building.

A visit to Cho Lon , Ho Chi Minh City’s Chinatown, can take an afternoon, if not an entire day. Like Chinese districts in San Francisco, London, New York and Bangkok, Cho Lon is one of the oldest and most mysterious parts of Saigon. Cho Lon means ‘‘big market,’’ and the best place to begin your visit is at the overwhelming Binh Tay Market. Although it is likely to be hot and crowded, take your time here. The variety of goods here is positively astounding and will give you uncanny glimpses into modern Vietnamese life. Friendly bargaining should save you from 20% to 40%. Although there are many beautiful pagodas in Ho Chi Minh City, one of the most interesting is the Nghia An Hoi Quan Pagoda on Nguyen Trai. It is certainly one of the most lavishly decorated. Enormous coils of incense hang from the ceiling, looking like great skeletons of Christmas trees. Stand quietly along the shady wall inside for a few minutes to observe visitors dropping in for a quick prayer. If you have an afternoon or two to escape the frenetic pace of Ho Chi MInh City, several nearby places make interesting day trips .

Within sight of Saigon Gòn, the Cu Chi Tunnels are part of an extensive network of underground passages which extend as far as Cambodia. Built by the Viet Cong, the tunnels played a strategic role in the Communists’ victory. Since the vast network included hospitals, kitchens, dormatories, weapons factories and even classrooms, thousands of guerillas could move themselves and their weapons undetected for great distances. A section of the tunnels is open to visitors. If you are small enough, you can try to wiggle through some of the narrow passageways. Another tunnel system at Ben Duoc was constructed just for tourists to crawl around in. If that’s not enough wartime nostalgia, you can even fire a variety of automatic weapons. Another fascinating day trip is to Tay Ninh, the center of the Cao Dai religion, which has perhaps two million followers in Vietnam. Cao Dai is a 1920’s invention which took the best of Catholocism and Asia’s great religions, plus a dab of Hollywood. (The sect has bestowed sainthood on Victor Hugo and Winston Churchill, among others.) Visiting the ostentatious but breathtaking cathedral is the highlight of the trip to Tay Ninh.

The noon worship service is open to visitors has been compared to a scene from Disney’s Fantasia. Travel agencies around town offer a somewhat-hurried combination Cu Chi and Cao Dai Temple tour for about ten dollars. Shopping As corny as it sounds, Saigon is a paradise for shoppers . Beautiful handicrafts and deliciously tacky tourist junk are in endless supply. If you love to shop and have at least elementary bargaining skills and a good eye, your money will go a long way and you can enjoy virtually endless retail entertainment. Your bargaining skills will come in handy everywhere except major tourist shops. Generally speaking, anything not marked with a price sticker can be had for about two thirds the price first quoted. While there are fine shops throughout District 1 , there are several streets which are especially good for shopping, particularly Dong Khai, and Le Thanh Ton behind the Rex Hotel. Many shops here sell jewelry, amber, ceramics, antiques, furniture, silk and apparel. The stalls along Le Loi Street between Ben Thanh Market and the New World Hotel sell all kinds of war surplus and hardware items. Lacquerware made here is practically the best in the world and is still a real bargain.

Scores of shops around District 1 sell boxes, trays, desk accessories, vases and other lacquerware items. Rosewood boxes and bowls are especially lovely. These make wonderful gifts. If your friends at home love tacky tourist crap, you are in luck! You will find an astounding array of toy helicopters made from Coca Cola cans, fake Zippos and cigarette lighters made from hollow M-16 ammunition, and Good Morning Vietnam T-shirts. HCMC's tailors are reminiscent of Hong Kong's before the seventies. Custom made shirts usually take three to four days and cost seven to ten dollars, not including the fabric. If you are a Coffee lover, buy enough to fill those empty corner of your luggage. Vietnamese coffees are among the best in the world, and very inexpensive. Because Saigonites drink so much of it, the beans on display in scores of shops around District 1 are always quite fresh. Whole beans sealed in a plastic bag will last quite well until you return, and provide a lingering souvenir of your visit to Ho Chi Minh City. Vietnam Passage. The City: Ho Chi Minh City Today | PBS 1.

Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee Building The northern end of Nguyen Hue Street at Le Thanh Ton Street Start your Vietnam Passage tour in the little park featured in the film and you'll find that the contrasts found in every aspect of Saigon life loom large. The exquisite former Hotel de Ville built for the French bureaucrats of Indochina in 1901 belies Vietnam's colonial past-yet today it is home to the Communist equivalent of HCM City's city council. Take a moment to study the statue of Ho Chi Minh, the revolutionary leader after whom the city was named in 1975 when the North finally captured the South after decades of fighting. ("Uncle Ho," as he was known, actually only spent a few days in the city when he was a young man.) 2. Dong Khoi Street From Nguyen Hue, walk one block east to Dong Khoi ("Popular Uprising") Street. French expatriates knew it as Rue Catinat, and American soldiers bought their Zippo lighters on Tu Do ("Freedom") Street, but whatever the name,s this thoroughfare has long been the elite shopping street of Saigon.

Walk south down Dong Khoi towards the Saigon River, and stop in at as many elegant boutiques selling the finest Vietnamese silks, pottery, and other crafts as you like. Hard as it may be to believe today, North Vietnamese tanks rolled down this very street on April 20, 1975-and soon after most of the stores were shuttered as the new nation plunged into a decade-long economic slump. 3. #19 Ngo Duc Ke Street Just before you get to the river, take a left off of Dong Khoi onto Ngo Duc Ke Street and duck into the non-descript little seafood restaurant at #19. Besides serving some of the best ginger chicken and fork-tender calamari in Saigon, #19 is also the former site of the United Press International news bureau. During the war, both reporter David Lamb and photographer Hoang Van Cuong filed dispatches and photos back to the U.S. from here. Today, even if you don't have time for lunch, a rich, creamy caphe sua da (iced coffee with sweetened condensed milk) will give you more than enough energy for the rest of the walking tour. 4.

Cuong's Antique Shop Turn right out of the restaurant, head out Ngo Duc Ke and take a left onto Hai Ba Trung Street. Walk north until you get to Dung Du Street, and if the gates are open, knock on the door at 64. This is the antique shop of Hoang Van Cuong, the photographer who stayed behind in 1975-and ended up spending seven years in a reeducation camp. His family's collection of ceramics and other artifacts are some of the most valuable in Vietnam. But the real gem is the second floor, where Cuong has set up his own private museum of war photography. Ask if you can visit and see some of the most searing images featured in Vietnam Passage firsthand. 5. Former site of the U.S. Embassy (now the U.S. Consulate) Say goodbye to Cuong, head back over to Dong Khoi Street and walk north. You'll pass two more ornate examples of French colonial architecture, Notre Dame Cathedral (on your left) and the Saigon Central Post Office (on your right) as you cross Han Thuyen Street and enter a pleasant parkland. Down Le Duan Street, to the right, is the new United States Consulate.

It was built on the site of the old Embassy building where the most dramatic scenes of the final days of the war played out as Marine guards tried to keep thousands of desperate South Vietnamese from mobbing the helicopters evacuating personnel from the rooftop. Some, like Nguyen Duy Binh, made it out; others, like Ann Tran, did not. 6. Reunification Palace Walk west on Le Duan Street until it deadends at Nam Khi Khoi Nghia Street. This large, modern building is Reunification Palace, today a museum where tour guides will give you the Communist government's official version of war history. Back in 1975, this was the Presidential Palace of the leader of South Vietnam-the target of VC spy Nguyen Thang Trung's bombing raid on Saigon in the final weeks of the war. Visit the various public rooms at the museum and you can see the desk where the last leader of South Vietnam surrendered to North Vietnamese soldiers. 7. War Crimes Museum If you are interested in looking at the war from the hardline Vietnamese perspective, make a visit to the War Remnants Museum-once known as the War Crimes Museum.

Continue up Nam Khi Khoi Nghia Street, turn left onto Vo Van Tan Street, and the museum is at # 28. However strident and one-sided the Communist rhetoric in the displays may be, the photos and artifacts are still chilling testaments to the suffering war inflicted on an entire nation. (After she was released from prison, activist Thieu Thi Tao worked at this museum as a guide.) 8. Rex Hotel If you aren't too sunburned, you can walk the mile or so back down Nam Khi Khoi Nghia Street to Le Thanh Ton, turn left and bear right to #141 Nguyen Hue Street. (However, you shouldn't hesitate to hop in a taxi and tell the driver to take you to the Rex! The fare should be less than $1). This historic hotel, once the host to the daily U.S. military briefings reporters dubbed the "Five O'Clock Follies," fell into disrepair after the war. But today the building, like the city itself, is again open for business.

In the lovely rooftop garden you can sit back with an icy bottle of Bia Saigon or a sinh to (fruit shake) and look out over bustling, vibrant Ho Chi Minh City. A Touch of Night Life? 9. Dinner Cruises Cruises along the Saigon River are a wonderful way to mark the end of a hot, sticky day. Boats of all kinds from eloquent barges to one-man putt putts (barter ahead, pay later), can be found along the docks between Nguyen Hue and Dong Khoi Strreets. Life on Vietnam's waterways is always exciting. 10. Queen Bee Night Club The nightclub scene is thriving in Ho Chi Minh city and The Queen Bee, once popular to homesick Gis, now caters to tourists and locals alike. If you are lucky, you may catch a performance by Hong Nhung, who is featured in Vietnam Passage. But fear not, the music is always good, and features a calvacade of performers. Some sing western favorites, but more and more the audience favors its own Vietnamese songs and artists. Being a part of this exuberant crowd will be an unforgettable memory. *Too much walking for you?

Feel free to stop by Ann Tours , the agency started by former U.S. Embassy secretary Ann Tran. Her staff can arrange for a cyclo (pedicab) driver to take you to each of the sites listed; the charge will be approximately $5 per person excluding tip. BBC - History - Historic Figures: Ho Chi Minh (1890-1969) z Ho Chi Minh, c.1965 © Ho Chi Minh led the Vietnamese nationalist movement for more than three decades, fighting first against the Japanese, then the French colonial power and then the US-backed South Vietnamese. He was President of North Vietnam from 1954 until his death. Ho Chi Minh (originally Nguyen That Thanh) was born on 19 May 1890 in Hoang Tru in central Vietnam. Vietnam was then a French colony, known as French Indo-China, but under the nominal rule of an emperor. Ho's father worked at the imperial court but was dismissed for criticising the French colonial power. In 1911, Ho took a job on a French ship and travelled widely. He lived in London and Paris, and was a founding member of the French communist party.

In 1923, he visited Moscow for training at Comintern, an organisation created by Lenin to promote worldwide revolution. He travelled to southern China to organise a revolutionary movement among Vietnamese exiles, and in 1930 founded the Indo-Chinese Communist Party (ICP). He spent the 1930s in the Soviet Union and China. After the Japanese invasion of Indo-China in 1941, Ho returned home and founded the Viet Minh, a communist-dominated independence movement, to fight the Japanese. He adopted the name Ho Chi Minh, meaning 'Bringer of Light'. At the end of World War Two the Viet Minh announced Vietnamese independence. The French refused to relinquish their colony and in 1946, war broke out. After eight years of war, the French were forced to agree to peace talks in Geneva. The country was split into a communist north and non-communist south and Ho became president of North Vietnam. He was determined to reunite Vietnam under communist rule. By the early 1960s, North Vietnamese-backed guerrillas, the Vietcong, were attacking the South Vietnamese government. Fearing the spread of communism, the United States provided increasing levels of support to South Vietnam.

By 1965, large numbers of American troops were arriving and the fighting escalated into a major conflict. Ho Chi Minh was in poor health from the mid-1960s and died on 2 September 1969. When the Communists took the South Vietnamese capital Saigon in 1975 they renamed it Ho Chi Minh City in his honour. Former name of Ho Chi Minh City - Crossword Clue Answer | Crossword Heaven Last Seen In: King Syndicate - Thomas Joseph - April 28, 2008 Found an answer for the clue Former name of Ho Chi Minh City that we don't have? Then please submit it to us so we can make the clue database even better! 2017: Best of Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam Tourism - TripAdvisor Things to Do More Vietnam's bustling largest city sets the cultural and economic pace for the country. The former Saigon boasts charming French colonial architecture and wide boulevards, usually thronged and choked with traffic. Taxis are an option for seeing the sprawling city. The War Remnants Museum shows the Vietnam War through Vietnamese eyes. Don't miss the impressive Jade Emperor Pagoda.

Go to the frenetic Ben Thanh Market for food, flowers or frogs. Take a tour through the Mekong Delta, past rice paddies and houseboats. Read more Read less

Question: What was the former name of the Vietnamese city of Ho Chi Min?
Answer: Saigon